I think @OracleSage should go
3 Likes
I can do it! Just give me a chance to get home so that I’m not trying to draft on mobile. 
6 Likes
Amazing job everyone!!! Unfortunately work got absolutely crazy the past little bit, but it makes me happy we have amazing Mounties like you guys working on the puzzles 
8 Likes
Do we have a draft to send?
3 Likes
Typing it now! Do you think we need to explain why we can’t try it on the Book?
5 Likes
Alright, draft:
"Augie,
Viviane again. We’re so sorry to hear about what happened with Sender and Knatz. Your story was frightening, to say the least. We do have some good news for you, though…we think we might have cracked the fragment!
Last we talked, we had mentioned that some of us followed the rhyme and split the timeline strip into two interlocked loops by cutting down the middle. We went back over every piece of info we had and decided the best thing to try would be using the arrows on the clock faces to point at certain letters on the outside strips. We went back and forth all day, trying different methods and combos for solving the Time Donut - Robert’s name for it, which stuck. Finally, a couple of us who had cut the center circle out of the clock face tried linking the faces together and found that, when you linked the clock faces together like chain links and matched the paired words, the arrows suddenly pointed to the letter outside the paired word. So, when you put “Acorn” and “Oak” together, the 1 arrow points to the letter outside “Oak”, not at “Acorn.”
I tried every position where the clock faces could fit and wrote the indicated letters in order 1-10, and we think we have something that might work: “INLAUDETUS.”
There’s a bit of a catch, though: we don’t seem to have access to the Book of Briars. Since we didn’t get an email from it either, the circumstances lead us to think that, although we can help with the puzzles, your group has to be the one to unlock the Book. I can’t explain why, but…trust the flow of magic, right? Anyway, we’re pretty sure about this. Just, try it on the Book and see what happens?"
12 Likes
Probably a good idea. I’d say we came to the conclusion that since the book sent us to Augie it wants him to open it.
Edit- which you already dud beautifully.
4 Likes
I think if we try to explain why we can’t do it ourselves, we would have to either explain that we’re in the future or come up with another lie, and neither of those options feel right. We could say something like, this is what we’re getting from the puzzles if you want to double check it? Or ask if the word looks familiar to anyone in his group? But we definitely have to tread carefully with this…
Edit: I think what you wrote works great!
4 Likes
Are we sure we’re not allowed to tell him who and what is hunting him?
2 Likes
His next question would be how we know. Then we’d have to lie.
5 Likes
We just say our benefactor has been doing some research into the disappearances and who is behind them. Which is all kinda true
1 Like
I think it’s be opening a can of worms to tell him… But I also can’t think of a great reason not to. I just don’t think it’d help him. He is deep in the woods now. Telling him who planted it is kinda superfluous.
6 Likes
Alright, if no one else has anything to add, I’ll send the above as is?
EDIT: Sent as written above.
6 Likes
Good work Mounties! Viv especially!
3 Likes
question, could we see how the time donut was made? like the final construction? im asking so i can get it in my own head and see if i was even close to how it was finally constructed
5 Likes
The final product was more a time chain than a time donut. Two interlocking rings for our two times.
4 Likes
picture still please?
2 Likes
Absolutely! Give me a sec to reconstitute mine…the donuts are a little mangled after all the traveling they did today.
4 Likes
I thought you all where talking about actual donuts for a second. 
Now I’m hungry.
4 Likes
Okay, so a breakdown of how the time donut chain works (Sorry @Robert, I can’t resist. They’re still donuts to me.)
At first we were thinking that the arrows pointed across the clock to the words, but there were too many variables for that to work and we kept getting different combinations. But when you link the clock faces like this and pair the words together, the arrow points to the letter outside the paired word, which uses all of the information and makes the order of the letters more straightforward.So Arrow 1 points to the letter outside “Oak,” which is I.
And 2 points to the letter outside “Butterfly,” which is N here.
8 Likes